He’s right… I had to move out several years ago. I wrote/recorded this song about the situation in NYC back then (THIS RENT IS KILLING ME):
http://thehorribleblob.bandcamp.com/track/this-rent-is-killing-me
The naysayers are missing the point- David’s essay on NYC could be applied to many, many places around the globe. It is an old story, but one that is being stretched to a much higher extreme these days. There have always been rich and poor areas of a city, but when the entire city and its suburbs is insanely overpriced, that city is doomed. DB is simply saying, maybe that’s the future of NY but we’d like to think such a dismal end can be avoided.
People saying “move elsewhere” are missing the point that “elsewhere” will eventually suffer the same fate unless we change our values as a society. Once Detroit becomes the new cultural capital of the West, and all the yuppies move in and ruin it, then what? What’s the point of just running from city to city, building it up, and watching it torn down?
I’ve lived in a brownstone, lived in the ghetto, I’ve lived all over this town.
4 Likes
It won’t happen that way. It’s happening now because as a society we’ve decided that urban life is what we want, and so the run down urban areas where artists work become desirable. But the upper class is by definition a minority, and when the last returning yuppie has moved into the last condo in the last new high rise, the artists and minorities will stop being pushed around.
Could you elaborate? I’m not sure what you mean. Urban life has always been desirable because of work opportunities; it became desirable, however, in a lifestyle-sort-of-way when enough creative folks moved in and generated lots of interesting, cool things which make living in the city attractive. THAT’S what brought the yuppies, who wanted to be part of that attractiveness without contributing anything to it.
I’m not sure what you mean about artists being pushed around. What will happen, if we let things run their course, is that all the blue-collar workers will figure out that they can get paid basically the same cleaning offices elsewhere than in NYC at a fraction of the rent. And creative folks will figure out that they can have their own wood-working shop, glass-blowing-shop, and painting studio elsewhere for a fraction of the cost. (Both, in fact, have already been happening for a while.) In fact, when enough not-rich-people finally say “fuck it” and move out, and the city faces some major infrastructure problems, then the rich people will say “oh, hey, we should do something” and either sell their places at a loss and leave, or try to attract folks back somehow. Regardless of how it plays out, it’s stupid to even go there when we can avoid it.
“Crime zone”? I guess you’re doomed to always be at the trailing edge of the arts/gentrification cycle and paying too much rather than anywhere near the leading edge. Most of the non Downtown areas Jersey City (for non NYers its the city in the article photo to the left and across the river from Lower Manhattan) are as safe as the gentrifying areas of Brooklyn at a fraction the cost. I know plenty of hipster artists in JC Heights paying $1000-1400 for large 2-3 bedroom apartments, some with yards. The arts playing field has moved again, and complaining about it is just unrealistic. In the 80’s I rented a 2500 sq ft loft in Tribeca for under $1500. I don’t think it’s unfair that I still can’t, I moved on and was lucky to be able to buy in JC when I did.
Meh, my friends live in dicier areas. Maybe it has become more affordable since the market went down, I don’t know.
I don’t think so, becasue there won’t be enough 1%'ers to take over all the cities of our country. I don’t think anyone is saying that all of the creatives should go to Detroit, or Cincinnati, or wherever, just that the creatives shouldn’t all go to NYC.
I’m tired of the cultural hegemony inflicted upon the USA by NYC and LA.
Unless we are really reverting to a new feudalism, in which case, the 1%'ers will own all the cities and the rest of us will eke our meager livings in service to them.
1 Like
Yeah, I’m not sure what you’re referring to, but of all the people I know in Jersey City (which is a decent amount) they’re either a) living it up in the rich waterfront section or b) living in places you’re describing but they’re pretty deep in, not in any areas with convenient public transportation or with the things that makes a neighborhood attractive- places to eat, interesting things to do, even nice parks. Basically you do get a larger place and a small yard for your kids to run around in, but the tradeoff is you lose everything you love about living in the city. It’s kind of like moving to the suburbs, though not quite. (Option c is live in some REALLY sketchy areas of JC.)
But if you work in the city and don’t want to have to commute 1.5 hours each way every day, and don’t want to have to worry about missing the next train that only comes every hour or whatever… in other words, if you want to be able to do the things that brought you to NYC in the first place… there aren’t any good options anymore. I live in Queens, the un-cool borough. And I’m fine with that- but even my neighborhood is now forcing a lot of people I know to move out. We’re not a rich neighborhood or a hip neighborhood- we just happen to be on a train line and not too far out of the city.
Now, we can be fatalistic about it and just say “well, that’s how it is” or we can work together to make it clear to our politicians that have sold off a lot of real estate to commercial interests that, hey, fuckheads, your short-term gains are producing long-term disaster for everyone including the business people you’re in bed with. You lose your middle-class population base, and nobody wins.
I can’t remember the last time that “our” politicians have listened to any people who weren’t born by corporate charter.
1 Like
I don’t know where they are, but in the Heights there’s quick buses to Port Authority or Light Rail to the PATH train, there’s several nice parks, like Riverview, GW or the Reservoir, and if the many eateries nearby are not enough, it’s a quick ride down the Congress St elevator to Hoboken and it’s wall to wall bistros etc. Change takes time, I was in Tribeca when there was no deli open past 6pm anywhere nearby. Can you even imagine it?
I live in a large one-bedroom in a safe neighborhood in South Brooklyn for a grand a month.
Still totally possible. You have to just be willing to live in an unhip neighborhood and commute a bit to get to midtown. And like Chinese food.
The way out of this is to relax zoning and let builders build. Then we get more supply to meet demand and price comes down. Getting rid of rent stabilization/control would help as well, but unlikely given local politics. Can’t have quaint low rise neighborhoods without keeping prices artificially high. Seattle is a classic example of this—people live in two story houses with yards—can’t build high rises in most neighborhoods=artificially high prices. Similar in NYC where most people live in five story buildings, when they should be in twenty story ones. With this kind of strategy open space is key–prioritize parks, waterfront access, rooftop gardens and such along with increased vertical building.
1 Like
This is one tiny symptom of the concentration of wealth. Without actually going and reading DB, I assume that is what he is talking about. The problem is the culture in such a town has too narrow a base to draw from and the values don’t synch with the rest of us. This is becoming overwhelmingly true in fine art and I bet we see this spread even in popular culture too ( Looking at you, Miley Cyrus ) Narcissism run rampant.
(edited to de-dickify)
1 Like
You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
1 Like
Rich People Just Care Less
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/05/rich-people-just-care-less/?_r=1&
http://www.alternet.org/why-rich-and-powerful-have-less-empathy
Rents are too high in Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn? There’s more of Brooklyn, there’s Queens, there’s the Bronx, and if it comes to it there’s Staten Island & nearby parts of Jersey. You can sure as Hell still find cheap rents in Bayonne, Jersey City, and Hoboken.
Been to Hoboken anytime recently? It’s insane there unless you’re lucky enough to have a rent control unit. But good for them! It’s a great place, and much of what makes it so is to be modeled. And like Park Slope or Billyburg, it’s only a tiny slice of the area, there’s plenty left to go, if people would only stop whining they want a rent controlled Manhattan apt.
2 Likes
And where were the yuppies before that started? In the suburbs, mostly. We’re in the midst of a change in where and how people want to live. We have a system where the rich live where they will, and the rest of us live where we must. So when fashions change, the rich cause the rents to fluctuate, which pushes other folks around. But the thing is the rich are few in number. When urban housing stock has expanded to accomodate enough yuppies, this perennial phenomenon of a gentrifying frontier will stop.
A moniker place by an unfair media and a certain amount pandering to that image by the local criminal class. Limerick does have a crime problem that is undeniable. But proportionate to the population this is miniscule in comparison to Dublin.
